Roadmap for children in migration

“The numbers of unaccompanied and separated children who arrived in Europe over the last two years were staggering. Many of the boys and girls came with their personal story of violence, pain, and/or exploitation.

European institutions and EU member states have developed and codified standards and a wealth of guidance well before the emergency of 2015. However, we have not yet seen the protection benefits of developed standards and guidance getting through to the children. We therefore need to look how to concretely operationalize the developed standards.

In response to this, UNHCR, UNICEF, and IRC developed a Roadmap during which over 90 practitioners, such as teachers, guardians, psychologists, and lawyers, from all over Europe as well as several countries hosting the majority of unaccompanied and separated children in Europe were consulted to develop concrete suggestions on how systems can be made more protective and effective at the same time.

The recommendations cover best interest procedures, guardianship systems, community engagement and cultural mediators, children participation, and comprehensive solutions, among others. Now, the main aim is to develop pilot projects on most of the recommendations and thus start to move things forward in more practical terms.

Have a look at the outcome discussion paper which lists the concrete recommendations from the consultations and let us discuss some of them during the conference.”

 

Link to discussion paper: https://data.unhcr.org/mediterranean/download.php?id=2350

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is a global organisation dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights and building a better future for refugees, forcibly displaced communities and stateless people.